Lukáš Macháček. Hanácká

Fashion designer Lukáš Macháček (*1989 in Olomouc) is a well-known personality on the domestic fashion scene. His approach to fashion is sophisticated and based on a deep exploration of a chosen theme, characterized by elaborate silhouettes derived from classical elegance, spiced with fresh rebellion.

In his latest time-lapse project, which was created in cooperation with the Moravian Gallery and culminates in an exhibition in Jurkovič Villa, the designer returns to his Moravian roots, to layers of traditions, collective memory, folk wisdom, and magic. He presents fashion as a means of communication with the world, a key to experiencing it, a shortcut that extracts the essential from the chaos of the world. The exhibition develops the motif of his fashion collection Hanácká, which is the culmination of the designer's long-term, intimate concept: "May everyone who sees, feels, or perceives the show, collection, or exhibition, perceive everything that secretly takes place in my soul and mind. It is in every warp, weft, or stitch of the collection... I have poured my heart into Hanácká. There is a lightness in it from the freedom of being oneself, regardless of what others think. Perhaps for the very first time, I return to my native Moravia, to the family silver of tradition, which many overlook," says Lukáš Macháček.

The collection reflects the silhouette of a folk costume, as well as hidden symbols of the heart, strands of red blood, love and suffering, fate and the will to change it. The layering, which Lukáš Macháček also uses in this collection, resembles layers of time. However, there are also small motifs, such as some intentionally unfinished seams, which are an expression of liberation from the roles that our surroundings assign to us and expect from us. Lukáš Macháček symbolically returns to the very beginning of his design journey, when he did not have the necessary sewing machine and unfinished seams were sometimes a necessity. Now they become a gesture of liberation, but also a conscious decorative element. Eva Sýkorová Čomborová, a Slovak fashion and art publicist and curator, contributed curatorially and creatively to the concept of the collection: "Hanácká is synonymous with an authentic statement, a narrative about the meaning of rituals and being, about freedom, about truth, about love, about the time of life. It is Lukáš himself. The collection represents a pure fusion of fashion, art and everything above into one symbiotic whole."

The exhibition follows the decadent environment of Jurkovič's House, its spirit, and the magical atmosphere here with a story whose central point is a woman and her clothing. It is not just a mere shell or attire, but an archive of collective and individual memory, tradition, history, as well as hopes and ambitions of the present and courage for the future. The woman and her dress symbolize the sum of these layers, which materialize in individual garments. Each has not only its functional but also its magical meaning, which resonates on its own and in its entirety sounds like a harmonious polyphony. Therefore, the exhibition also unfolds a "story" on multiple levels – temporal, spatial, and formal. The past and tradition intertwine here with contemporary spirit and an idea of the future, which is connected with the magical ritual of foretelling the future from cards.

The symbol plays an important role in the concept of the exhibition, referring not only to the archetype of folk costume, but also to ornamentation and its intuitive reading. This is also reflected here in the form of transformed reverse sides of Mariáš cards, which refer to folk mysticism and the foundations of ancient belief in good and fear of the usurping power of evil. Here they are also a symbol of the courage to resist evil, hope and the will for life and happiness.

Special thanks are extended by the exhibition's authors to Nora Grundová, editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar Czech Republic.